Can anyone help identify this sword?

[7.62 Solution]

This sword was my dad's he brought it back with him after WW2. He never said much about it other than it was bent from being run over (never said much about anything about retaking the Philippines and other islands) which I always respected and didn't ask.

I am curious about it, assume it was issued to a Japanese solder. If anyone can shed any information about what rank would have had it or anything else I would appreciate it.

 

[Sam Cade]

Typical Japanese kyū guntō, issued widely to officers.

Hard to tell anything else about it.

Late war judging by the sheath, I think.

 

[GCBurner]

I've got one like it. Cheap steel, mass produced, and apparently untempered. They were made for looks, not for use.

 

[JShirley]

Odd handle for a Nipponese sword. Mine has the "katana-esque" handle, and while it may have been made in a factory, it's good steel.

 

[Sam Cade]

Odd handle for a Nipponese sword.

As a consequence of the Meji resotoration ca.1870 the Imperial Japanese military was entirely westernized.

It wasn't until the mid-30's and the rise of faux-bushido that the katana-esque showed up as an issue item.

 

[JShirley]

During the Meiji Restoration, the power of the samurai class was destroyed, but their bushido ideals were taken and used to manipulate the entire populace.

John

 

[Creature]

Interesting blade form. The blade tip shape and blood groove are not typical. Blade may date back to possibly from the Russo-Japanese War?

 

[Sam Cade]

bushido i

Sure. But I think we have to differentiate between the restraint, and honor Bushido of Nitobe Inazo* and the 1935 Bushido of atrocity.







*Worth a read.

http://www.amazon.com/Bushido-Soul-Japan-Inazo-Nitobe/dp/160386198X

 

[JShirley]

Oh, I meant manipulate. The Japanese were indoctinated to accept certain ideas that were useful to the country's leadership, and enthusiastically "bought into" them. I should find the paper I wrote about it- I think I called it "The Way of Death".

 

[Sam Cade]

I wrote about it- I think I called it "The Way of Death".

I would tear into that like a monkey and a 'nanner.

 

[JShirley]

I'll see if I can find it.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

It should have good steel and cut or slash well.

 

[kBob]

The handle is consistant with the WWII era Japanese issue Naval Officer's Sword. The grip material was shark skin with braided wire. Scabbard is as it should be metal.

It may be the photography but the blade appears slightly different from my source picture especially tip shape, but that could be the result of the damage your father told you about.

People assume to know a lot about Japanese weaponry. I do not assume I know that much but can look up things and have some small experience.

A friend as a youth had a sword that no one would believe was Japanese. His father had taken it from a Japanese Officer along with a pistol on a raid on a dam in the Philipines that included Navy SeaBees. It was in fact a Japanese court sword from the early 1900s based on European court swords. The pistol that caused such nay sayers to call BS was a Mauser .25 just as Japanese Officers purchased around WW I period.

For some reason if a sword is not a Katana type or a pistol a Nambu, T14 or T94 folks tend to believe they could not have been taken from Japanese in WWII.

I rather doubt Cold Steel sold anything much like it but I could be wrong.

-kBob